Cyber crime becoming more prevalent during pandemic, experts warn

Cyber crime on the rise during pandemic With more people working from home during the pandemic, cyber attacks are becoming more common. Jennifer Basa reports.

MONCTON, N.B. — With more people working from home throughout the pandemic, cyber crime is on the rise.

Cyber criminals are constantly finding more advanced ways to attack Canada's most vulnerable, says the CEO of a company offering to help train people in order to prevent some of those cyber attacks.

"Business has never been better for criminals," said David Shipley, the CEO of Beauceron Security.

Shipley is a cybersecurity expert who says small- to mid-sized businesses have been cyber criminals’ main target during the pandemic because they are the most vulnerable.

"Those that are still open, governments, hospitals, higher education, K-12 schools, have been bearing the brunt of that activity, as criminals continue to try and make the money they made before the pandemic," Shipley says.

Criminals have been known to target corporations and government agencies, including the Canada Revenue Agency, where hackers compromised the personal information of thousands last August.

"Think of it as high-speed computer-based lock-picking, and the more we do things like re-use passwords or don’t turn on options like multi-factor authentication, the easier we make it for criminals to do those kinds of activities," Shipley says.

The city of Saint John was also the victim of a ransomware attack last fall.

The attackers were asking for $17 million in bitcoin. No ransom was paid in the attack, however, it did cost the city close to $3 million in recovery costs.

Because of incidents like this, companies including Lighthouse Labs are working with Cyber NB to try to expand the cybersecurity workforce.

"We are trying to introduce cybersecurity not just to technical people, but non technical people as well because there is such a huge skills gap we are hoping to help a lot of people re-skill into the cybersecurity space and go out and get jobs and careers," said Jeremy Shaki, the CEO of Lighthouse Labs.

Because cyber criminals are constantly finding new ways to attack, Shaki says there is always going to be a need for more cybersecurity, in this digital age.